


What The Heart Is Oozing

by MDCBD



Series: IronStrange Drabbles & Short stories [6]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys In Love, Feels, Happy Ending, Honestly the happy ending tag is so important with me, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt/Comfort, Incredible! H/c from me!, M/M, Mild Blood, Not Canon Compliant, also I put mild blood but it's not actually blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 02:53:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20941082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MDCBD/pseuds/MDCBD
Summary: He feels his heart bleeding out, and looks down to see a red liquid pouring from the beating organ, on his shaky hands and through the long fingers.





	What The Heart Is Oozing

**Author's Note:**

> I gift this to someone (who will know who they are) as a message of support for the hardships they are going through. :)

He feels his heart bleeding out, and looks down to see a red liquid pouring from the beating organ, on his shaky hands and through the long fingers.

Stephen takes a wobbly breath, feeling strangely numb to what was happening. He could see the crimson hand traveling from his chest where it gripped the muscle and squeezed frequently to mimic its usual beating, up to an arm linked to a man with warm brown eyes and chestnut hair.

Tony, his mind whispers softly.

His chest too was open, in a comically oval shape over the left instead of the usual and more realistic spread eagle he knew from his doctor days. He couldn't even see the edge of his lungs, nor his broken ribs, just a big, red and aching hole, and where his heart should be, there was nothing.

Because Tony had put it inside of his chest.

Another squeeze, another breath, another gush of liquid.

It wasn't blood, he knew it. If this was blood, Tony would be dead, and not looking at him with compassion and fondness, and more.

Another squeeze.

He would not be holding him close, as Stephen counted the seconds between each intake of air and gulped down the need to cry or scream with something he could not name despite the numbness around him.

Another squeeze.

The liquid wasn't blood, he knew, just like this wasn't the real world. But this Tony was very real. His intents were real.

Another squeeze, another breath, another gush of liquid, flooding the white aetheral floor everywhere, drenching his clothes, his body, his mind.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, barely audible through his teeth and the fog in his brain.

Another squeeze, another precarious breath.

Tony was rubbing circles in his back, his other hand still inside of him, the hole in his chest still gaping.

Another squeeze.

"Because you need it. You need a heart."

This liquid wasn't blood, but he knew what it was, he just couldn't understand why it was here, why there was so much.

Another squeeze. Another unsteady breath.

"So I am offering you mine."

Another squeeze, more liquid poured onto his fingers and dribbled down.

"What am I going to do with it?" He sobbed despite himself. The tears fell and mixed with the liquid, disappearing as though they have never existed.

A huff, a squeeze, more liquid. It never stopped.

"You disappoint me Stephen," Tony whispered against his ear. But even as he said that and Stephen felt himself sag against his shoulder, more tears threatening to fall, even more liquid gushed out of the living beating organ, like a waterfall of red. "I gave you my heart so you could use it to stock everything you wanted in it. Pain, sadness, joy, it has seen and experienced it all."

Tony looked at him gently, still regularly squeezing the organ inside his torso.

"It can contain anything you want, you just have to let it heal and stick with you."

Another squeeze, but this time nothing gets out. Stephen's eyes are wide open, staring into Tony's with wonder. The man slowly lets go of the muscle, and Stephen's whole body shudders as he feels it starts beating on its own in a beautiful and healthy rythm.

He clutches at his chest, where there is no wound, and looks at Tony's, where there is no hole.

"What about you?" He asks, panicked. Because even if he can't see it, he doesn't think there is something behind the man's left lung.

But Tony smoothes down a curl of hair behind his ear, unhurried, unafraid, "I can live like this, as long as you do." His eyes crinkle with love and fondness. He can't bare to look to long so he stares at the no-longer pristine floor.

"And the... Liquid?" He murmurs, staring at the red on his hands, forearms and so on.

The floor is drenched red, they both are, it is everywhere, sticking to him, under his nails, between his toes, in his hair too, probably.

"Stephen," Tony whispers, and he looks back at him and his fond eyes.

"This liquid is my love, it won't go away, it won't stop flowing through your heart, it'll stick to you."

Stephen's breath hitches, and as his own heartbeat echoes between the two of them, he can't help but ask, seeing so much of it everywhere, in a hushed and almost awed voice "where am I going to keep all this love?"

Tony's hands takes his bloody ones and put them right where he can feel his new heart beating. He squeezes them gently, a reminder of what he had been doing this whole time.

Keping him alive.

"Right here," Tony tells him simply, his eyes never leaving Stephen's, and he can only bring him closer after that.

**Author's Note:**

> For my Ironstrange 2019 Bingo Square _"Holding Hands"_.
> 
> **[Said bingo card.](https://mdcbd.tumblr.com/post/187194772632/fill-for-the-prompt-unaware-whod-have)**
> 
> For my Stephen Strange 2019 Bingo Square _"Hurt And Comfort"._
> 
> ** [Said bingo card.](https://mdcbd.tumblr.com/post/186440359717/fill-for-the-mind-reading-prompt-chapters) **


End file.
